Animorphs: The Victorious
by Adin the Conqueror
Summary: Were you disappointed in the way this amazing series ended? Look no further for the way it REALLY happened!
1. Chapter 1

I was an avid reader of Animorphs when I was little, but didn't read them in order and wasn't able to get any of the books past book 30. So, around ten years later, I decided I should read them again and judge them for myself (I was far too young to know whether or not they were good, back then). I was captivated by nearly every book. But when I got to "The Beginning," I decided not to read the "two years later" section when everyone but Cassie randomly gets sucked into another war and it just ends. Even in stopping where I did, all I could think was "unsatisfactory." Thus, I am here. If you were dissatisfied, which I'm sure hundreds were, you can read this and know that this is what actually happened:

(For some reason fanfiction ignores my thought speak markers, so I've had to use something else.)

Animorphs

The Victorious

Chapter 1

Jake

I waited in horror, trapped as Visser One cut down James's troops one by one. If I demorphed, I would die. Accomplish nothing. And Marco was minutes away.

Too far away.

"Visser, they're taking cover!" The human controller shouted.

{Can you get a lock on their new positions?}

"…negative, Visser."

Visser One growled. He flicked his bladed tail.

{Fine. Let's make them watch as their fellow humans burn in their place. Set Dracon cannons for maximum dispersal. I want to enjoy this.}

"Dracon cannon configured, Visser."

{Fire.}

"Firing."

{Ah, the humans have begun to notice, eh? Ah hah hah! Look how they squirm!}

"They will suffer one hundred percent casualties in thirty seconds."

{Marco!} I cried.

{We got it!} he answered.

{Then do it! Now!}

{They burn, they burn!} the Visser exulted.

Finally, "Visser, the helm is not answering."

{What do you mean the helm is not answering? We're drifting off-target! Get us back over the target!}

"Helm is unresponsive, Visser!"

He bounded over to the helmsman's position and seized the controls himself. I had a perfect view.

{Engineering! That fool in engineering must have…}

I could practically see the wheels turning in his brain. I could almost see the thought process, as one by one the clues fell into place.

{They are on board! Visser One shouted, aghast. They're here. They're on board! They sacrificed the girl and used her to get on board!}

He still hadn't quite gotten it, but he was getting there. He still had not figured out that Tom had betrayed him.

"Visser, we appear to be heading toward a low orbit."

{I can see that!} Visser One raged. {Do we still have communications?}

"Yes."

{Then raise the Blade ship. Order it to approach. If necessary it can fire to disable our engines.}

It was almost too perfect. Visser one was actually going to invite Tom to approach. He was all but sealing his own doom.

{I want every Hork-Bajir who can stand to meet me outside engineering,} he said.

He was trembling. I could feel it so clearly. I savored his fear and rage. I had watched, helpless, while he murdered over half of James's people. Watched while he gloated and turned his beams General Doubleday and his army to fry them like ants under a magnifying glass.

Now I wanted him to feel afraid.

{This ends now,} he said harshly.

And silently I replied, _Yes, it does._

VVVVVVVV

The next few minutes were a blur. Battle. War. The same blur that I'd been living for the past three years. I know you're familiar with the details – I've said them time and again, and frankly I'm getting tired. I can still taste the Hork-Bajir blood in my mouth. Suffice it to say that in the fight we scored the greatest victory in the war, and I got stuck with the weight of seventeen thousand deaths on my shoulders.

You heard me right. When we found the Yeerk pool in the center of the ship, Ax got into the computer and told me he could flush the liquid into space – and the Yeerks with it. I only hesitated for a second before giving him the order. Seventeen thousand slugs froze solid in a millisecond, drifting dead in orbit.

When I had met up with the others I had to tell them my full plan.

"Oh, Jake…" Cassie cried.

{You son of a…} Tobias began. {You arrogant, ruthless… What have you done? What have you done?}

"I can't let him get away," I said dully. "Tom's Yeerk… A Blade ship, probably the morphing cube? You were right, Cassie. I can't let that happen."

Right before the fight Tobias fixed his glare on me.

{Don't let her die. Find a way, Jake. Don't you let her die.}

VVVVVVVV

{Erek!} I raged in thought-speak. {Stop draining power from the Dracon beams!}

Nothing happened.

{Erek, I know you think you're doing the right thing, but you're making it worse!}

Visser one sighed, glaring at us.

{My one consolation is that when the traitor murders me with my own ship, it will at least finally be the end of you!}

We were on the bridge. Visser One was cornered. The Blade ship was hovering in front us out on the viewscreen, in perfect position for us to shoot out its engines.

And Erek was going to end up killing us all.

"Targeting the Blade ship's starboard engine. We are ready to fire," one of the humans reported.

Visser One waved a lazy hand.

{Fire.}

On the screen I saw the beam reach out through space. Once. Twice. Both missed.

The Blade ship reacted swiftly to avoid the slow retargeting of the Pool ship's big Dracon cannon.

The Blade ship fired. The explosion reverberated through the ship.

"Engine number one is destroyed, Visser."

The Blade ship fired again. Again.

Two more explosions.

"We are without propulsion, Visser."

{Yes. I noticed that,} Visser One said. {No engines. And all our brothers in the pool murdered by these humans.}

"We are being hailed."

{Of course,} Visser one muttered. {By all means. We must play it out.}

It was Tom's face that appeared on the screen. And Tom's voice that spoke. But the smug, hard, derisive tone was that of a Yeerk.

"You seem to be experiencing some engine trouble, Visser," Tom gloated.

{The Empire will track you down and kill you; you do understand that, I hope?}

"Oh, I doubt it. I think the Empire will have its hands full. The Andalite fleet is rather close by. It's possible that I misled you on that point."

Then he caught sight of me.

His face paled. His eyes went wide. All at once, he knew.

"You're not dead!"

{I noticed the same thing,} Visser One said dryly.

Tom snapped an order to his crew. "Bring us around to target the Pool ship's bridge. Do it! Now! Now! Bring us around!"

Jake, Tobias said, pleading, knowing, but pleading anyway.

{Rachel…} I said. {Go.}

Rachel

I felt shade. Absence of light. Distance from vibration. No scent of blood.

I was a flea.

Was I in a safe place? Surely not, but maybe safe enough.

I began a slow, cautious demorph.

I heard a yell.

"Bring us around to target the Pool ship's bridge!" Tom. "Do it! Now! Now! Bring us around!"

I was now fully human. At that moment I could have morphed all the way to elephant without being noticed. Tom's panic was infectious. They all knew they'd been had.

But they didn't know how. Tom's reaction was pure instinct: shoot at the Pool ship, destroy the Animorphs and the Visser in one shot.

The danger was closer than that. I was already morphing to grizzly.

Jake looked at me. Like he knew I was watching him.

{Rachel,} he said. {Go.}

Rachel… Tobias said.

{I know, Tobias. I know,} I answered.

I was still not completely morphed when someone shrieked.

"Animorph!"

After all these years of the yeerks thinking we were Andalites, always yelling "Andalite!" whenever they saw a morph. It was strangely gratifying that at last they knew who we were.

I said, {That's right, genius: Animorph.}

I did what I do better than anyone. What Jake counted on me to do.

I attacked.

I charged right for Tom, an express train of fur and muscle. Before he even had time to blink I slammed into him and bashed him against the viewscreen. It wasn't enough to kill him, but I had to damage the ship, keep it from firing at Jake and the others.

Fire seared my right flank, but it didn't faze me. Pain was something that could be dealt with later.

"No Dracons!" Tom shrieked. "You'll damage the ship! Morph! Morph, you idiots!"

I swung at Tom, and it should have been all over then. But I missed. He dropped and I missed. He crawled underneath me. I slashed and laid his back open, but it wasn't enough to stop him. He staggered towards the exit.

The others were morphing around me. Tom was only one. If I killed him, and died for it, the others could still pilot the ship. I turned to the closest one with a roar. I didn't care what Jake said. Whether it made me like a Yeerk or not, I was going to kill them mid-morph.

"RRRRAAAAAAAHH!"

I lumbered at the first one and clobbered the side of his head. I heard the bones crunch. He crumpled, a half-formed mutant thing. I turned and slashed another, then jumped on him and crushed his cow-shaped face in. He stopped moving.

I saw Tom himself starting to morph, but there were still more I had to worry about. And they were almost done. One was most definitely a polar bear. I had only seconds before his powerful arms had muscled up, and then I'd be facing my equal in combat.

I charged and slammed into him with my shoulder like a linebacker.

We tumbled. He rolled twice, landing on his stomach. And I did something that no bear would do: I climbed on his back, wrapped my arms around his neck, wrapped a claw to the other side of his head, and jerked.

_Crack._

I got off his body and turned to face the rest. I was facing a leopard, two lionesses, and…

I couldn't find Tom.

I growled.

For a wondrous, frozen moment we all waited, stared, breathed, tensed expectant.

I felt…

I felt exalted.

It was my moment. This was my place and my time and my own perfection.

I wasn't afraid. Weird. If I'd had a mouth I'd have smiled.

{Well?} I said.

No one moved.

{Scared?} I asked.

No answer.

{You should be,} I said, almost laughing.

I lunged. The lionesses jumped to the side, then leapt at me.

One sunk her fangs into my foreleg, snarling like a crazed alley cat. The other got onto my back, trying to bite my neck – a waste of time. No one bites through a grizzly's fur.

I got my weight underneath me and shook like a dog. The first lioness flew off my arm. I swung at her but she was too fast. I spun and threw off the second one. I leapt forward and pinned it down. It looked up at me and roared. I bit its neck and shook it like a rag doll. When I took my bloody fangs out of its neck it was still, its eyes wide and staring.

There was only one lioness left. But I was missing something. Something nagged at me.

{Tom!} Jake yelled. {Rachel, look out for Tom!}

What was he talking about?

Something pricked my forepaw. I jerked. A cobra reared back, his hood flared.

Tom.

He'd just killed me.

I snarled. The lioness snarled and leaped at me. I roared and slashed my claws through her abdomen. She screamed. The world began to blur. Fire started moving up my paw like a river of pain. I bent down and ripped out the lioness's throat.

Another spike. Tom bit me again. I staggered. There was so much blood on the floor…

I collapsed. My vision swam. Something brown waved into view in front of my eyes. A hood flared. A hiss.

"Rachel." A new voice in the distance.

Tobias.

I turned my head. In this new dim light, through the fog of the spreading poison, I saw the viewscreen. I saw my best friends. I saw Cassie. Jake. Marco, funny Marco. Ax.

{Tobias.}

He had morphed. He was his human self once more. He'd done that for me. And because he was crying. I understood. Humans cry, hawks don't.

"I love you," he murmured, his voice breaking.

Tom struck me again, his fangs sinking into my cheek. I didn't even jerk away.

How could so much sweetness and so much sadness all be present in that single moment? I was already dead and missing my unlived life. I was already dead and Tobias was mourning.

No.

Not today.

NOT EVER!

{Die, Yeerk!} I screamed. I lunged with all my strength and sunk my teeth into the snake. I broke him. His blood filled my mouth.

Darkness closed around me as he went still. My nose melted. My body shrank down. Fur disappeared. Muscles re-shaped. Bones creaked and cracked.

And out of the darkness that invaded my sight, a new vision formed.

I saw light. I saw light above me.

I felt the cold metal under my stomach.

I was human.

And I was alive.

VVVVVVVV

How's that for a start? PLEASE review if you like it, so I'll know to keep going!


	2. Chapter 2

JAKE

No one moved.

I don't think we even breathed.

"Rachel?" Tobias called.

"….yeah."

They all cheered. Tobias slumped against the wall. I heard them. But all I could do was look at the bloody, torn body of the cobra that lay next to her head.

Tom.

Dead.

Cassie was nudging against me, bouncing around like happy dogs do and cheering in my head. But my brain wasn't working. I couldn't move, couldn't do anything but look.

Toby, the leader of the free Hork-Bajir, burst onto the bridge. She was scarred and bloody.

{Jake, they're surrendering. We had to promise them amnesty and a chance to acquire the morphing power.}

I heard her words.

{What's the matter?}

She noticed Tobias, breathing heavily, a small smile creeping to his lips. Toby had only seen him in human morph a few times. She's named for him.

Rachel was getting up.

"So, how do I get out of here?" she finally asked, looking at us through the viewscreen.

I heard Ax give her instructions. Something about an escape pod on the port side.

Tom was dead.

And I wondered how I was ever going to explain it. I had ordered my cousin to execute my brother. How would I ever explain that?

All these years I'd fought to keep us all alive, to stop the Yeerks, always with the hope that someday I would save my brother, that he would come back, that he'd be Tom again. That was why I'd enlisted in the war to begin with. I was going to save Tom.

Tom was dead. The Yeerk in his head was dead.

I had failed.

I was responsible.

How many had died because of my orders?

General Doubleday's soldiers who had provided the suicidal diversionary attack on the ground.

An unknown number of James's people, the auxiliary Animorphs, who had gone with them to trick the enemy.

How many of the free Hork-Bajir?

Seventeen thousand Yeerks, frozen. Flushed into space.

Plus.

Plus.

All at my command.

"Jake, I need your okay," Toby pressed. "The Yeerks want you. They want your assurance."

How was I going to explain this to my parents?

Silly to think of that right then. Silly and stupid.

"Jake…" Toby urged.

The others had quieted, were watching me.

{Tom,} Cassie said softly. {Toby, Tom is dead.}

Toby absorbed that, then said,

"Jara Hamee, my father, died bravely in the battle here today."

Still I couldn't talk. How did I explain…

Marco was still in gorilla morph. He said,

{It's okay, Toby. Tell the Yeerks that Jake will be along in a minute. Tell them Visser One is our captive. Tell them we approve the deal you made.}

{My people may not agree,} Ax reminded him.

{Yeah?} Marco shot back. {Guess what? This is _our _planet. These are _our_ prisoners. This is _our_ victory. If the Andalite high command doesn't like it, they can stick it.}

Cassie came to me and sort of leaned into me, as close to a hug as we could get right then. I was afraid she would say something sympathetic. I was afraid she would comfort me; 'cause if she did, I knew I would break down right then. My brain would shut off, because it would make the pain too real.

{We still need you. You're not done yet, Jake.}

The right thing to say. Cassie was good at that. I noted its effect on me, observed my reaction from a million miles away.

I sighed. Okay. Yeah. I still had a job. Do the job.

{Everything else can wait,} she pressed.

I took a deep breath.

{Okay, Toby. Okay. I'll be right there. Tell them what Marco said, and I'll be there later to back you up.}

I focused on Visser One. How had this happened? How had he survived and Tom died? How did he still live? How could that be the result?

{I imagine it's time to kill me,} he said. {You'll be doing me a favor. Whatever death you have for me will be nothing compared to what the Council of Thirteen would sentence me to.}

{No. No more killing,} I said.

"What do you mean, no more killing?" Tobias asked, turning to me. "He's the one responsible for all this! He killed Elfangor! He's been trying to kill us for three years!"

{He's a prisoner of war,} I said softly. {We don't kill prisoners.}

There was a flash. A round pod shot from the blade ship and blazed through the atmosphere down towards Earth. Rachel was away. In a few moments the blade ship moved. It turned away, didn't fire on us, and its engines lit, zooming away out into the solar system.

{Marco?}

{Yeah, Jake?}

{The Visser is going to remove himself from this Andalite body he has stolen and inhabited for so long. Find a safe place to keep him.}

{You got it.}

{Cassie? Go get Erek. If he wants the Chee secret to be kept he needs to hide himself. We may have guests soon.}

{Anything else?} Cassie asked.

{Like what?} I snapped. {An apology? To that robot? "Sorry we blackmailed you into helping us?" No. He drained off the Dracon beams, and because of that our plan almost failed. _He almost KILLED Rachel!_}

Cassie hesitated, looked down, then turned to go.

I spoke to Ax in private thought-speak. His tail blade flashed and caught the Visser unprepared, a flat-side smack against his temple. His host body, the long-enslaved Andalite war prince called Alloran, slumped unconscious.

{I know you can still hear me in there, Visser. I'll make this simple: You exit that body. You do it right now because if you don't we're going to cut our way in and yank you out.}

Tobias? Marco? Find a box, a jar, something to hold this Yeerk when he gets out. If he doesn't come out within two minutes, do it the hard way.}

I had Ax dial up the Andalite high command, and simultaneously patch it in to the civilian media channels on the Andalite home world. We knew that the Andalites there didn't fully know what their military was doing, and I was going to use that to my advantage. There was a really good chance the Andalites would just want to blow us up, and Earth too.

I met with the Yeerks who surrendered, and guaranteed that they would receive morphing power, under one condition: that they choose a morph and stay there. Forever.

CASSIE

I found Erek. I simply walked through the Yeerk ship calling out in thought-speak. A wolf prowling strangely empty, silent corridors.

He appeared before me. I demorphed.

"Hi, Erek."

"Hi, Cassie." He smiled sadly. "Jake sent you."

I nodded.

"I see. He feels guilty."

I set my jaw.

"No. Not guilty."

His eyes narrowed.

"Then what? He used me, blackmailed me, manipulated my programming to get me to break through the security grid and take control of this ship."

"You drained the Dracon beams."

"What did Jake expect me to do? I had given him control when he needed it. I wasn't going to enable him to kill."

"You forced Jake to kill tom. You almost killed Rachel, too. You almost killed all of us. That's unforgivable."

"And I'm supposed to feel regret because Jake ordered his cousin to kill his brother and I didn't allow him to massacre everyone else on the Blade ship?"

That made me really mad and I guess I showed it.

"So, you too, huh Cassie?"

"Jake did what he had to do."

"Did he? Someone flushed the Yeerk pool into space. Did he have to do that, too? They were unhosted Yeerks. They were harmless."

"No Yeerk is harmless," I murmured. "They came here. They tried to destroy us."

"Jake massacred seventeen thousand sentient creatures."

I took a deep breath.

"Jake says maybe you should get off the ship, Erek. The Andalites will most likely be coming aboard soon. It's up to you whether you go on keeping your existence secret. We won't tell anyone."

"I see."

"Bye, Erek."

He walked past me. Right before he was out of sight, I called,

"And, Erek?"

He stopped and turned.

"We don't want to see you ever again. You almost killed us. And I think Jake will try to kill you if he ever sees you again."

MARCO

Ax and I watched, fascinated and repulsed, as the Yeerk wormed its way out of the Andalite's ear. This was what we'd been waiting for all this time. It really wasn't sinking in for me yet.

I had found a lockable briefcase, a very human artifact stuffed under a control panel. It was filled with chocolate chip cookies. Some Yeerk, probably a human-Controller, had developed a sweet tooth and it would be hard to get a good cookie on a Yeerk ship.

I ate a cookie and held the case open for the slug that was the true Visser One.

{I could easily cut him in half,} Ax offered conversationally.

{Yeah. Well, better not, I guess.}

I'm probably the least emotional person in our group. I could see clearly from A to Z without worrying about the morality of it. I had no more qualms about the seventeen thousand than I had about bombing the ground-based Yeerk pool.

Tobias had demorphed to hawk. He was perched on a railing. Fidgeting. I knew he was itching to get down to the surface to see that Rachel was really okay. I don't know if he'd forgive Jake for how he'd risked Rachel. Maybe Tobias would eventually accept what Jake did. Maybe not.

I demorphed as soon as I saw the slug wriggling out of the Andalite's ear.

It was weird. I was watching our greatest foe place himself literally into our hands. We had beaten Visser One.

Later, we were definitely going to have the biggest party _ever_.

"Ax, pick him up."

Ax picked up the Yeerk, holding him between two fingers, as though it was something dirty. I agreed with him.

He dropped it into the briefcase. I closed the lid and turned the combo lock.

"I guess we won, Ax."

{Yes.}

"Shouldn't someone be singing 'God Bless America'?"

Ax looked puzzled and decided to let it go. He said,

{I must access the communications array and carry out Jake's orders.}

It took a few minutes and then, on the screen there appeared a wary Andalite face.

{What do you want, Yeerk?}

Ax said, {We are not Yeerks. I am _aristh_ Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, the brother of Prince Elfangor. You have correctly identified this signal as originating from a Yeerk pool ship, but this ship is now under the control of…} He frowned, uncertain, and turned a quizzical stalk eye to me.

I shrugged.

"This ship is under the control of the Earth Liberation Army." I grinned. It was an über-awesome name for a just handful of kids.

Ax repeated it word for word to the skeptical Andalite.

{Do you seriously expect me to believe that humans have seized control of a Yeerk Pool ship, _aristh_ Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthil? Clearly you are a Controller. Just as clearly this is a clumsy trap.}

Cassie returned. She took in the scene and decided to stay quiet.

"He's got us there," I admitted. "He has no way of knowing whether we're really us or Controllers."

Ax said, {There is a Yeerk Blade ship heading…} He consulted a display panel and gave the coordinates. {You may be able to intercept them.}

The Andalite officer said, {Anything else, Yeerk? Is there another part to this pitiful attempt at a trap?} He looked like he was about to sign off.

Jake arrived. "Where do we stand?" he asked.

I motioned to the screen. "This genius thinks we're Controllers trying to set him up."

Jake nodded. "Perfect," he said dryly. "How do we get around this?"

{Tell him you'll surrender the Pool ship to them.}

It was Visser One! No. No, it was the Andalite Visser one had infested for so many, many years: Alloran-Semitur-Corrass. I'd forgotten all about him. He was coming around. He climbed to his hooves.

{So the deception is over. I see the Visser has revealed himself,} the Andalite officer said smugly.

Alloran started to say something, then turned his face and main eyes to Jake.

{With your permission?}

That was one weird moment. Alloran was an arrogant, determined, even criminally ruthless Andalite war prince. Or had been once, long ago. And then, for a long time, that face had been the face of our deadliest enemy. And now he was meekly waiting for Jake's okay.

Jake nodded and in a very respectful tone said, "Please continue, War-Prince Alloran."

Alloran's main eyes flickered, a slight display of emotion.

{Who are you?} he demanded of the Andalite officer.

{I am Offeran-Jibril-Castant. I am officer of the day aboard the Andalite Dome ship…} He hesitated and there was a slight, ironic smile in his eyes. {The dome ship _Elfangor_.}

Ax swelled about a size.

{A Dome ship named for Elfangor. There is no higher honor for a warrior.}

{A well-named ship,} Alloran said. {Now, officer-of-the-day Offeran, you're going to want to contact the captain because you have just captured a Yeerk Pool ship. We will advance at space normal speed to any point you name. All Bug fighters will be deployed around the ship, and as we reach the rendezvous point you will see all Bug fighters self-destruct. At that time we will detach the Pool ship's main engines. All weapons will be powered down. This ship will be perfectly helpless.}

That got Offeran's attention. He turned a lighter shade of blue. It was kindof like if in the middle of World War II the Japanese Navy had called up the U.S. Navy and said, "Hey we're going to turn over our biggest aircraft carrier to you. Come on over and pick up the keys."

Suddenly the scene changed. The face on the screen was older. This Andalite had a burn scar on his scalp and was missing one stalk eye.

{Captain-Prince Asculan-Semitur-Langor,} Ax said in private thought-speak.

"Big time?" I whispered under my breath.

{_Very_ big time.}

The captain favored us with a long, hard, serious look. Then he said, {Visser, I refuse to - }

I saw it coming. The old Andalite was going to chill us. It wasn't my place to butt in, maybe, but I couldn't let this old creep screw everything up by committing himself. Once he said what he was getting ready to say it would be impossible for him to climb down.

"Hey, Ax-man," I said brightly. "Is it true that the Andalite home world is watching all this? Can I wave to them?" I waved like one of the idiots outside of the _Today_ show. "Hi everyone! Howard Stern rules! Yaaah!"

Well, that stopped everyone and everything dead. I could practically see the wheels turning in old Asculan's nasty head. Jake looked for a minute like he was going to slap me silly. Ax had basically turned to stone.

But then Jake nodded, with a small smile. He got it.

So did Alloran.

{I should have informed you earlier,} he said. {By orders of our Prince we have patched this through to the civilian media networks.

Asculan had a mean look to him now. Furious. He was trapped. And he didn't like being in traps.

Jake stepped into Asculan's line of sight.

"Captain Asculan, we know that the Andalite fleet is devoted to the destruction of the Yeerk threat. And we know that you must be personally committed to that goal."

I translated in my head: _We know you've come here to turn Earth into a big charcoal briquette because you think it's the only way to stop the Yeerks._

"Because of your devotion to duty it may almost seem a disappointment to reach your goal, only to discover that your foe has essentially surrendered.

Translation: _It's over._

"At this point we have to set aside the necessary ruthlessness of war, the suspicion and hostility, and turn instead to the more satisfying duties of making peace."

_Your people back home are watching and if you come in here and kill us, they'll turn on you._

"We could never have done this without the help of our Andalite friends."

_You screwed us over. We asked you for help, and you abandoned us. You were going to kill us instead. But we'll make nice and pretend none of that happened._

"I look forward to our two peaceful peoples working together. We have a lot to learn from you, just as we've already learned from the great Elfangor and his no less courageous and resourceful brother Aximili."

_The Dome ship _Elfangor _is gonna come in and annihilate everything the real Elfangor's legacy? Wipe us out and kill Elfangor's little brother, who's a ready-made Andalite hero? Guess again, you mean old fart._

The captain listened to all of this impassively, but I could practically see the steam shooting out his ears. By the end of Jake's speech his eyes were sort of glazed over. He knew he'd been trapped for good.

{Who are you, exactly?} Asculan asked.

I jerked my thumb at my friend. "This is Jake. Jake Berenson. President of Earth."

VVVVVVVV

Things will definitely be changing. Drastically, and for the better. REVIEW, PLEASE! Don't know that you like it if you don't review!


	3. Chapter 3

Rachel

I coughed as I opened the hatch.

The escape pod I was in had some sort of inertia-dampening technology to keep me from being smashed into goo when it hit the ground, which was nice, but when the hatch opened I got a facefull of dust from the crater I'd just created in the middle of downtown.

When I looked around all I could see were the ruined buildings everywhere, destroyed and burning from the Yeerks' final few days of blowing the crap out of everything within a mile of their destroyed pool.

I morphed to Eagle and flew up above the buildings, looking for allies, and quickly found some in the form of Hork-Bajir. I called out to them first, to make sure they were from the colony, then joined them, morphing back to human.

I followed the pack of them around as they went from place to place in the city, not really caring what they were doing. We passed new patrols of allied Taxxons, marching in rows. Hork-Bajir that passed us made a point to acknowledge me. I was in kindof a daze, even as I answered them.

We had just won. We had just won.

The war was over.

I knew this day would eventually come. Everybody said that they didn't know what I'd do when the war was over. And that really hit me at that moment. This war had been my destiny; there was no question about that. I had been put on this Earth to join four other kids and a stranded Andalite in saving the world.

What was I supposed to do now?

After a few moments I couldn't take the silence, the Hork-Bajir's occasional, garbled speech. I needed humans. …or did I want to be alone?

"Guys? I'm… listen, where are the other Animorphs? James?"

"James? He by Yeerk pool with human soldier," one of them answered.

"Thanks."

I morphed Eagle again and took off toward the Yeerk pool. I can't really describe what I was feeling. I flew on autopilot, memories stabbing through my mind like old recordings. The horror and wonder of my first morph – my elephant. All the battles we'd fought. How close the six of us had gotten – how we'd grown apart sometimes, then were brought even closer together.

Through these flashes I felt lots of things: sadness, raw fury, the terror, that deep ache that you can't explain – something associated with such heavy memories, like what war-heroes have – but through and above them soared something new as a thermal lifted under my wings and took me clear of the smoke: joy. No, not that happy, jump-around-like-an-idiot kind. It was very quiet. Soft. Gentle.

It was over. We had won.

And no matter what anybody says, for me right now, that was a good feeling.

I spotted James and a few of the other auxiliary Animorphs right where the Hork-Bajir had said they were. They spotted me as I descended, and when I landed in front of them I quickly demorphed.

"Hey," I said. General Doubleday, who had just been talking to James, turned and nodded to me.

"Hello," he said quietly. "What's going on? Any news?"

I blinked.

Had I seriously forgotten to tell anyone?

"Oh. Yeah," I said a little sheepishly. "It's over. The war's over. We won."

They all stared at me.

"Over," James repeated.

"But the pool ship-" General Doubleday began.

"Jake flushed it," I cut him off. "Seventeen thousand Yeerks. Their entire invasion force is frozen in space." A small smile crept up on my lips as I looked at their dumbfounded faces. "Oh, and – last I saw, Jake had Visser One cornered. He had taken control of the Pool ship. And the Blade Ship was long gone."

James let out a shallow breath. Then he whirled and shouted to everyone within a square mile:

"Everyone! It's over! The war is over! WE WON!"

Like when I said it, there was that frozen moment of stunned silence.

Then it was like a bomb went off.

Hugging. Cheering. Jumping. Screaming. Of soldiers, Animorphs, and Hork-Bajir alike. Nobody tried to hug the Taxxons, but I don't think they cared.

I felt a part of it, and not. James turned to me, grinning from ear to ear.

"Thank you so much, Rachel, for letting us fight. For letting us achieve this."

I grinned back at him.

"Our pleasure, James," I said. I shook his hand. "We couldn't have done it without you."

"So, what do we do now?" He asked me over the noise of the celebrating.

I turned and looked to the sky, where I knew the Pool ship sat floating in that hidden blackness.

"Wait for Jake," I answered. "It's his call."

Tobias

I was about to break out of my feathers.

So I did. I morphed my human self. Now instead of constantly shuffling my talons on the railing, I paced. Finally the Andalites came back and gave their answer.

It was everything we had ever been waiting for.

Jake gave the command for Ax to lower the Pool ship through Earth's atmosphere back to our hometown.

We landed the Pool ship right where it had been before. People were clearing up the dead, carting away the wounded. Some were animals, I saw. But at the moment I didn't care. I was only looking for one face.

One banner of shining golden hair.

I saw her by the Yeerk pool. Everyone was cheering. Dancing. Jumping around madly. I started running for the exit before the ship had even landed. Everyone followed me. Even Ax. He probably got Alloran to land it for him.

The landing ramp extended down into the open air. I leaped onto it even as it descended. I felt like I should leap from it and fly to her. But no, this was much better.

I leapt.

I heard the others behind me doing the same.

We all crunched down onto the shattered, gravelly remains of the concrete streets.

I saw her through the crowd. Everyone was looking at us and clapping, cheering for us. I ran through a sea of soldiers and auxiliary Animorphs patting me on the back to get to her.

Rachel.

Alive.

The war was over, and we were all alive.

"Rachel!" I yelled.

She was already looking at me, but I yelled her name again all the same.

"Rachel!"

She laughed and ran to me, shoving James out of the way slightly. I jumped forward and wrapped my wings – arms around her, burying my head in her shoulder, her hair.

"I love you," I told her. There was no hesitation. No inhibition.

I love her.

"Tobias, c'mere."

Jake, Cassie, Ax, and Marco had stopped behind us. We pulled away from each other, then without a pause kissed. For real. This was real. Nothing to hold back anymore.

And for once Marco didn't make any comment about bird-boy.

After a second we broke apart.

"I love you too, Tobias."

Jake

We met up with Rachel again, all of us. After Tobias kissed her we all hugged her until she was about to pop. Then we picked up James and the other Animorphs and headed to Washington D.C. Finally, we could tell the world what had been happening for three years. What we'd been through to save the world.

Things couldn't have been better. Through some clever maneuvering by Ax and Alloran, Visser One's former host, they got Asculan to talk to the High Command. Ax had been promoted to Prince, made Liaison between the Andalite home world and Earth, and we'd been given four morphing cubes to do with as we pleased – namely to give the captured Yeerks and Taxxons morphing powers so that they could become more pleasant forms of life as _nothlits._

Mostly we were quiet. Alloran had left with the other Andalites, gone back to their own ships. That left the six of us on the bridge. The other Animorphs were in adjoining corridors. The six of us stood and watched out of the viewscreen as Ax piloted the Pool ship up into orbit for the then-short journey to Washington. There wasn't anything to say, really. We all knew each other better than anyone but soldiers could know each other. I looked around at my team, my elites. My friends. We'd fought in the worst trenches. We'd fought a war we couldn't tell anyone about. We faced death every hour. We'd managed to graduate from middle school and keep saving the world simultaneously.

No one was prouder of them than me.

{Prince Jake, we are descending.}

"Ax?"

{Yes, Prince Jake?}

"_You're _a Prince now, Ax. You don't have to call me that anymore." He turned to me, looking very serious.

{You will always be my Prince, Prince Jake. I would rather have served under you than under the greatest War-Princes our home world has ever borne. You are greater than all of them combined.}

I looked down for a moment, absorbing that. I had to fight to keep my eyes dry. Then I looked up again and laid my hand on his shoulder.

"And I wouldn't have wanted to fight alongside anyone else, or have anyone else for friends," I answered. I looked at everyone. Cassie. Marco. Rachel. Tobias. "I mean that."

Marco threw me a sideways grin.

"Aww, is our fearless leader getting sentimental?"

I walked over and punched him in the arm.

"Yes. I am."

We landed at the Mall. No, I don't mean the mall where you shop, I mean the MALL. Right in the middle of the reflecting pool, in between the Washington Monument and the Capitol building. Let's just say that 'we caused a bit of a stir' is a bit of an understatement. See, the Yeerks only let a few minutes of footage of them blowing up our town through before shooting down the news choppers, so everybody knew that _something _was happening in the southern part of the U.S., but I bet nobody knew what.

Well, that was about to change.

After getting swarmed by Security guards and Secret Service men, we eventually got swarmed by T.V. cameras and microphones. The spaceship was mostly to blame, but five kids walking out with a blue centaur-scorpion was a big plus on the freak-out meter. After we told them we knew General Doubleday, and they called and got his okay, the people with the guns backed off and the people with microphones stepped in.

The six of us stood in the front, the surviving eleven Animorphs in back. They dragged up a podium from somewhere, and put us on the steps to the Capitol. Pretty soon people started showing up – senators, representatives. The President. I smiled at him. He didn't know it, but we'd saved his life once.

I knew I couldn't put it off any longer.

You know that most people are more afraid of public speaking than dying?

Well, I've been seconds away from being completely dead. And I'd gone right up against brain-stealing aliens, giant cannibalistic slugs and walking switchblades at least once a week for three years.

And no, talking in front of a bunch of cameras labeled Fox, CNN, CBS, and MSNBC isn't as scary.

But it's up there.

"Um, hi." I began. My voice reverberated across the stone of the Mall. All I could hear was my heartbeat and the clicking of the cameras.

"Dude, don't screw this up," Marco muttered.

"Don't remind me," I muttered back. I turned back to the cameras and the quickly forming crowd.

"My name is Jake," I said, my voice more steady. "Jake Berenson. This is Rachel Berenson, my cousin, Tobias Fletcher, Marco Reyes, Cassie Freeman, and Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthil. And, since the alien crash-landing three years ago, the five of us have been fighting to save Earth from the Yeerk Invasion."

"Who is he?" one of the women with a microphone asked, waving it at Ax. "Can he communicate with us?" Ax raised an eyebrow, but took it with good grace.

{I can communicate with you perfectly well,} he said.

Well, after the fallout from being spoken to telepathically, we filled in the reporters and the world. Even though Ax's mere presence backed us up pretty good, all of the Animorphs, including James and the auxiliaries, morphed, finally, for everybody to see. Battle morphs, of course. They're the coolest on camera.

After ten thousand questions from the media, the President rescued us. He took all of us to the White house. All seventeen of us met with him in the Oval Office. He looked us over, then shook his head amazedly.

"I still can't believe that a bunch of kids did all of that."

"Not kids anymore," I said quietly. He nodded.

"Yes. I can see that," he said. He looked around at all of us.

"Which one of you is the leader, here?" All of them looked at me like it was obvious and the President was an idiot. He stepped over to me and reached out his hand.

"Then on behalf of the United States of America, let me thank you. For saving us all."

I pondered for a moment, but didn't take his hand.

"Don't thank me. I didn't decide to be the leader. We all did this. Everyone in this room is a hero."

The President nodded, smiling.

"You're a true leader, then" he said. Then he looked to everyone. "Well, normally every one of you would receive Presidential Medals of Freedom. But…" He looked at me. "From what you've told us, and from all of the reports and confirmations that are coming in right now, there is no honor or repayment worthy of what you have done." He straightened. "But if I bend some rules, will you accept Congressional Medals of Honor?"

Marco

We were the heroes of the entire freakin' world. Seriously. In a matter of minutes there wasn't a person on this entire planet, or in the _galaxy_ for that matter, that didn't know our names. And Jake - strong, silent, brave, awesome Jake - they wanted to carve his face into Mount Rushmore right next to Abraham Lincoln. He said no, of course, 'cause he's such a big lug, but I have a feeling that they might do it anyway.

All of us became the biggest stars that Earth ever knew. We actually _did_ the alien fighting. All of us appeared on the biggest shows – Oprah, the O'Reilly Factor, CNN, Barbara Walters, everything. They loved us. Even if Barb failed to make Jake cry.

We all had an 'awww' moment when we were taking a commercial break on Letterman.

"Tobias?" Jake asked. We were all sitting in a line of chairs, angled slightly to face Dave's desk. All but Ax, who was standing next to Jake. Dave had gone offstage because his makeup was running.

Tobias leaned forward.

"Yeah?"

"It's getting close to the time limit. You'd better demorph."

Tobias was holding Rachel's hand absent-mindedly. I saw him squeeze it. She looked at him curiously.

"No," he said quietly, shaking his head. We all looked at him.

"What?" I asked. He grinned a little.

"No," he repeated. Rachel was fixing him with a hard look, with a little concern thrown in.

"Tobias, are you sure?"

He nodded.

"Definitely."

He leaned in and kissed her.

Jake and Cassie looked at each other and leaned in to kiss, too.

Who was I supposed to kiss? Ax?

"Kay, I'm really getting tired of all the smooching going on around here," I said, snorting and looking off at the audience. They were watching us rather closely. The girls were giggling to themselves.

Apparently everybody had stopped kissing, 'cause Tobias said,

"Ax, how much time do I have?"

{Three minutes,} Ax answered. {Are you sure about this, Tobias? You will lose your morphing ability.}

"I'd be willing to lose it to stay with Rachel. It's not like I need it anymore."

Rachel was looking at Tobias with an amazed smile. Come to think of it we all were.

"But don't think I'm giving it up, now," he said quickly. He leaned forward again.

"Jake, you have the morphing cube with you?"

"Always," Jake answered.

"Why doesn't anybody ask_ me_ if I have a morphing cube with me? I have one, too. Already had ten thousand people on Facebook message me about letting them have morphing power."

Ax counted down the minutes until Tobias was officially a human _nothlit._ Then, with a collective gasp from the audience, Jake pulled out the morphing cube and Tobias put his hand on it. He jerked his hand away after a second and Jake quickly put the cube back in his jacket.

"We'll have to go out after this and re-acquire your old morphs," Rachel said.

"Mom said that someone brought a red-tail in the day that they opened the clinic again," Cassie offered.

Tobias shook his head and laughed.

"Can the Ellimist be _more_ obvious? I don't think he's trying hard enough."

For a few days, in between interviews, we were all carting around the morphing cubes the Andalites had given us, giving Yeerks morphing powers, helping them acquire something, then make sure they stayed past the two hour limit. Same thing for Taxxons, though they were a bit easier 'cause they all wanted to morph Anacondas, like Jake had suggested. Lots and lots of waiting, let me tell you.

Oh yeah, we called a break from all that after about a week. Like I said before, we were going to have the biggest victory party _ever_. And I _meant it. _

Jake didn't want to, but I dragged him along anyway.

Imagine the weirdest costume party you've ever been to. Now imagine that all of the costumes are real. We rented out the courtyard of a Marriott close to our hometown, since all of our awesome hotels had been leveled by the Yeerks. Anyway, we had all of the Hork-Bajir from the colony there, all the auxiliary Animorphs, and us. Oh, and our parents. They did help, at the end, so I guess they were allowed to be there. I don't know. Aside from my mom, who'd been the host to Visser One, I felt like it was our thing, you know? We'd fought the good fight all the way from the beginning. The auxiliary Animorphs felt like part of us, too, since we all shared the same ability, but still the six of us often found ourselves together, a little separate from the group.

Correction: five.

I looked around the party and couldn't find Jake. He'd been doing that lately – disappearing, I mean. He'd just up and leave, especially when there were a lot of people around. I think that bothers him for some reason. Jake never showed it, not like Rachel did, but I think the war affected him more than the rest of us.

Cassie

When we all finally got home, we really didn't know what to do. No mission. No war to fight. It hadn't sunk in. Somehow I knew it never would. Every morning, from now until I die, I'd wake up thinking that the world weighed all on five kids and a young Andalite. Only to find that there was nothing to do. We'd got what we wanted. Now we just had to live.

And what? Graduate high school? Go to College?

It sounded completely ridiculous.

Right after I walked in the door the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Cassie?"

It was Rachel. I smiled to myself.

"Something 'important' happening at the mall?" I asked with a little chuckle. We'd always spoken in code. I don't think we ever said anything we'd meant on the phone since that first night at the construction site. Ages ago.

"Yeah," Rachel agreed. She knew exactly what I meant. "Hey listen, I think something's wrong with Jake."

"I know," I said. "He's kindof… I don't know. Getting shut off."

"He left the party early, got his own flight home on a jet by himself. I haven't seen him since. Have you?"

"No," I answered. "You don't think he-?"

"Don't be dumb," Rachel cut me off sharply. "Jake's together. He's just… listen, I know it sounds stupid, but I think he's got some post-traumatic stress."

"Post-traumatic stress," I repeated. Jake? He would get down on himself, sometimes, but he was always there. He was a fortress.

"I know, I know," Rachel said. "But I also know what I'm talking about. I mean, I think I had it, too, right when…when I almost ran over the guards at the base. But I cried it out with my mom. And I was better afterwards."

"I remember," I said. Seeing Rachel cry wasn't something I'd ever forget. Rachel _doesn't_ cry.

"But Jake doesn't do that. He never cried, not since Elfangor."

"He was close a couple times," I found myself arguing.

"Yes, but never a tear," Rachel countered. "I think – well, with me, I was just exploding. I was going to kill everything in my way. I think Jake might be shutting down."

"We have to do something," I said finally.

"Where do you want to meet?" She asked.

"Above the m-" I froze for a terrified second, then laughed.

"What?" Rachel asked.

"I stopped myself," I answered. My heart was light. "I just can't believe that we can talk about morphing on the phone, now."

"Yeah," Rachel agreed.

"So, above the mall?"

"Sure."


	4. Chapter 4

A little addition: Listen to "Into the West" on youtube when you read this. It's what I was listening to when I wrote it.

VVVVVVVV

We met there, Rachel in her eagle and me in my Osprey. It felt so weird, morphing again. We were doing something important, sure. But not since the very first days had we ever morphed for fun, or for convenience. Jake would've killed us.

{Hey,} Rachel called. I swerved over to meet her, adjusting my tail feathers and spreading my wings wider to maintain my altitude. There were some wonderful thermals here, because of all the concrete.

{So, any idea where he is?} I asked.

{I thought we'd kindof use this as a base, spread outward from here.}

{Hi guys.}

I spotted a red-tailed hawk catching a thermal off to the west, heading toward us.

{Tobias?}

{Know any other talking hawks?}

{Hi Tobias,} Rachel said.

{Hey. You know, it's so weird knowing that this body isn't me anymore.}

{Do you like being human again?} I asked. He soared up next to us.

{Sure. Just weird having arms instead of wings.}

{Hello everyone.} A harrier came up from below.

{You brought Ax?} Rachel asked Tobias.

{Well, I've been helping him rebuild his scoop by Cassie's.}

{Don't forget me!} Another voice. Marco came swooping over in his Osprey morph.

I laughed.

{Wow, Rachel. I didn't think this was gonna be a big deal.}

{Come on, Cassie,} Marco mock-chided. {The Animorphs'll never split up. We're all stuck with each other until we all drop dead. Now come on. Our fearless leader needs us.}

We found him after an hour. He was just walking aimlessly. Marco was closest, so I called him over when I found Jake.

For a while we just watched him.

{You think Rachel's right?} Marco asked.

{I don't know,} I admitted. {He stopped talking to me about the middle of last week.}

{Same here,} said Marco. {But, you know, I don't think it'll do any good to just talk to him.}

{What do you mean? You think he should see a psychologist?} I asked, worried at the thought.

{Yeah, that'd go over well,} Marco grumbled. {'Savior of the galaxy in therapy.'}

{I don't think anybody would blame him,} I said softly. Marco didn't answer for a second.

{Yeah, you're right. But nobody'd look at him the same, either. He'd lose their respect. And I think he'd lose his own.}

{You know what?} I said. {I think he needs something to… you know, cheer him up.}

{…kindof hard to cheer up from this, Cassie,} Marco said skeptically.

{I don't know,} I countered. An idea was seizing me. And it just might work. {Quick, when were you the happiest the last three years?}

{The happiest? Freeing my Mom,} Marco answered.

{No, Marco, I mean just the pure feeling of _happy_.}

{I – when I was a dog. Or a dolphin.} Marco was finally catching on.

{All right, here's the plan:…}

Jake

I was walking by myself. And that's how I wanted it to stay.

I had eventually met up with my parents, of course, after all of the chaos. I deliberately avoided them until their Yeerks died of Kandrona starvation. That felt really good. I reunited with them, and had to tell them the truth.

I'd used Rachel as an insurance policy, to make sure Tom didn't get away.

And the backup plan had succeeded. Rachel had succeeded.

Tom was dead.

Those three seconds where they just stared at me in horror were a singular lifetime.

Even as my parents hugged me and cried – they knew that I'd been one of the 'Andalite bandits' the whole time, from what their Yeerks had told them – I could tell that they were sickened by my choice, by what I became.

I left them as quickly as I could and threw up.

My own parents didn't know who I was anymore.

Neither did the entire world.

Neither did I.

Thousands of deaths were sticking into my like syringes carrying toxin.

So I avoided everyone and everything. But when I sat still I couldn't stop tapping my fingers.

So I kept moving.

So I walked on.

So I wouldn't go home again.

So I wouldn't morph again.

So I wouldn't talk to anyone again.

I was done.

But I wouldn't cry. Nope. Not Jake. Jake doesn't cry. Jake is fearless. Jake is always strong.

It was all I could do to keep walking, not to crumple up and lay on the sidewalk and wait to die.

Something flickered in the bushes.

My eyes widened. I felt my pupils dilate. Every nerve lit up like a lightning storm.

Hork-Bajir? Taxxon?

Something worse?

Claws extended from my fingers. Orange and black stripes painted themselves across my skin.

A dark, reddish-brown dog jumped out of the bushes and bounded at me, its tail wagging, its tongue lolling out of its mouth like an idiot.

I relaxed, refocused myself away from the tiger and back to human. The claws and stripes faded away.

"What do you want?" I asked quietly as the dog slowed, trotting up to me. It sat down and stared at me for a few seconds. We stared at each other. I frowned. What did this dog want?

I started to move down the sidewalk again, ready to leave it. I kindof needed to be alone. Alone was good.

"Grrrr."

I paused. Raised an eyebrow. Had the dog just growled at me? For moving?

"No," I reprimanded.

I stepped away.

The dog lunged at my legs.

"AAh!"

The dog fastened its teeth on my jeans and started yanking me backwards.

"Hey! Stop it!" I yelled.

The dog kept pulling me backwards, taking my right foot off the ground and making me hop sideways on one foot. The dog was play-growling like we were playing tug-of-war.

"Let _go!_" I shouted.

Finally the dog let go of me. It leaped away and got all low to the ground, wiggling its butt back and forth as it wagged its tail. It jumped back and forth. I could tell by the way it was moving that it wanted me to follow him.

I shook my head. Fine. I'll play along, doggy.

I walked toward it. It stood up fully.

"Where do you want me to go?"

The dog barked, then started trotting down the street the other direction.

I followed the dog for a long time. It looked back every now and again, making sure that I was still there. Eventually I realized where we were going.

I felt the familiar crunch of sandy grass under my shoes.

We were at the beach.

The ocean rolled in, blue and sparkling. The day was cool, so not very many people were actually in the water. Clouds had begun covering the sky – not dark enough for rain, just enough to distort the sun.

The wind from the sea blew through my hair. It made my eyes dry. I blinked, trying to wet them.

The dog got behind me, jumped up, and shoved me toward the sand with its paws.

Okay, this was way too much coincidence. A random dog leading me to the beach? Giving me a shove?

"Marco, I know it's you."

I turned around. The setter was bulging upward, its fur pulling back into its skin, bones crunching and realigning. Eventually Marco stood in front of me in his morphing outfit.

I noticed the people staring avidly at us. They were putting two and two together, realizing who we were. It wasn't that hard, seeing as a dog had just turned into a human. Pretty soon there'd be a crowd of admirers.

I shivered. Nausea threatened.

"Remember this place?" Marco asked, stepping closer to me. I looked around. The wind ruffled my hair again. It was getting cold. The clouds were thickening, fading the sky to grey.

"It's the beach," I said quietly. But deep down I knew what he meant. One of our first missions had been here. Recon. I'd morphed Homer and spied on a Sharing meeting. I'd found out for sure that Tom was a controller.

This beach was the place where I'd fully committed myself to being an Animorph. To fighting the war.

Marco knew me well. He didn't say anything, but he could read my face. He gave me a light punch on the shoulder.

"Jake?"

"Yeah?"

"You wanna go swimming?"

I stared at him.

"The water's probably freezing."

He stared at me.

"Gimme a break, Jake." He grabbed me by the arm. I tried to shake him off, but suddenly his fingers were like iron. He dragged me to that spot right before your shoes start to get wet, where the waves slide up onto the sand.

"Now, get down to your morphing suit unless you want to ruin your jeans."

I felt so tired. Everybody wanted me to do something. Why couldn't I just be alone?

"Marco…"

He fixed me with a glare that made me want to back up slowly.

"Do it."

I sighed and obliged. Soon I was in my morphing outfit.

"Marco, I don't want to morph anymore."

"You know, you could probably tear me up, but even if you morph your tiger, I'm sure that as a gorilla I could give you a pretty good toss into the ocean."

"Tigers love the water."

"So get in it and save me the trouble."

I looked down, then waded in.

The water washed up around my ankles. I saw everyone on the beach staring at me again. My jaw tightened. Fine. Let them see. Let them gawk.

My nose and mouth hardened and elongated. My skin turned grey and rubbery. My nostrils closed up and my nasal passages rerouted to the back of my head, where a blowhole opened. My hair disappeared. My arms crunched and pulled back, widening and becoming flippers. My legs fused together. I fell over into the water with a splash.

As soon as my feet morphed into my tailfins I felt it. The Dolphin surfaced.

It seemed confused for a moment. Why was I sad? I had the ocean. Dolphins could be sad, though, like when another dolphin died.

_Another dolphin did die_, I answered it. _I killed it._

For a moment the dolphin had no response. Then-

_We have the ocean. We can play. We can make friends. We can be with friends we already have._

_ Friends._

The dolphin's natural ecstasy was infectious. Everything in me was slowly getting energized. I didn't want to float in the water anymore, getting pushed by the waves. I wanted to use the waves. I wanted to be with friends.

Friends.

I had been wrong. My friends. My friends understood. They'd done it, too.

I needed to be with my friends.

{You coming, Jake?} I looked up. Out in the clear water, another dolphin floated. Marco. I fired an echolocation burst.

There were more dolphins.

Five more.

I fired my tail muscles and shot away from the beach like a missile.

I went out to them and we played. We flew threw the ocean. It was our playground.

The best playground ever.

A wall fell away as we played. Even though energies flowed and spiked, even though we soared through both the water and the air, a quietness filled me. I needed my friends. I needed to talk to them.

{Guys? Can you… come?}

I turned back to the beach.

{Sure, Jake,} Tobias answered.

We all got to the shallows and demorphed at a spot where we could all stand. We surprised a nearby snorkeler, and I almost laughed. I ignored the other people still staring at us as we climbed out of the water.

We got out and sat on the sand. Ax laid down on his stomach like a deer does, his legs folded underneath him. No one spoke. They were all waiting for me.

"I killed seventeen thousand Yeerks," I said finally. Marco snorted.

"Jake, I know you. That's not what this is about."

"No Marco, I think that's part of it," Cassie stopped him.

"Jake, I know what bloodlust is," Rachel said. "That's all that was keeping me alive those last few weeks. You're not worried about the Yeerks, you're worried about yourself. You're afraid of that power that drove you to kill."

I looked down.

"I don't know what made me do it."

"I do," Marco said fiercely. "You weren't worrying about morals. You weren't worrying about right and wrong. You were thinking 'Die, you slimy, evil Yeerks.' You killed them because you wanted revenge."

"And isn't revenge a bad thing?"

Cassie was looking uncomfortable. But she took a deep breath.

"Jake, they came here. They wanted to enslave us. We didn't attack them. They attacked us. They killed Elfangor. They forced us into the war. They took away our childhoods."

{You did your duty, Prince Jake. You did it well,} said Ax.

"We wouldn't have lasted a week without you," said Tobias.

"I never wanted anyone else for a leader," said Rachel.

"You were the best, man," said Marco. "Wouldn't trade you for anyone. Earth couldn't have asked for anyone better."

"I killed Tom."

They were quiet.

"_I _killed Tom," Rachel corrected. I looked up at her bleakly.

"I gave the order. But…how can you live?"

Rachel didn't hesitate.

"Because I know, now, that even though Tom didn't want to die, he knew that he needed to. That if he died, he died to help save Earth. To save his family. To save you. And that was something good."

I broke.

I cried.

I cried out every tear the war ever forced me to carry.

They were all there to see it.

And I was still their champion.

It was Cassie that I had my arms around. I was crying into her shoulder. She helped me to my feet. Then it was all of us together. A huge group hug. I wish with all my heart that the war had never happened. But a small piece of my heart is glad. Glad because it had given me the best friends, or as Ax would say, the best _shorms,_ that any one could ever have, or ever would have. From now until the end of all ages.

VVVVVVVV

We had peace.

Our celebrity status made us all have to move into a gated community, but we didn't mind. We all became next-door neighbors. We also managed to get it so we had a sort of community pool in between all of our houses. Our backyards all faced each other, making a ring.

It was a haven for us.

How'd we afford it, you might ask?

Well, as it turned out, we'd all been keeping records of what happened. Diaries, journals. All handwritten, of course. We typed them up and published them. You're reading the last volume now.

The last night of any importance was of no importance at all. That's what made it beautiful.

All of us had gathered around a small fire that we'd made in a fire pit out in back of my house, right by the pool. The firelight flickered on the gently rippling water. We were quiet, just enjoying each other's company. Just us. Cassie: the farmgirl; the girl I loved; the one who knew everyone's heart. Rachel: the supermodel and the Xena; our strength, the one we turned to when hell had walked on earth; Marco: the strategist, the joker, the one who made us laugh when we were about to give up; my friend from beginning to end. Tobias: the quiet; the strong, the bravest. The truest. The one who lost it all and still kept going. Ax: the Andalite, but the kid just like us; now the hero of his people, his name as great as his brother's; the only one who never, ever faltered, gave up hope.

And me, Jake: the one who chose not to be the leader, but got chosen anyway.

What we had been through wasn't fun, no. Not by any definition. But we'd done it. We'd done it together. And now we had the greatest bond any humans, Andalites, or any species had ever known.

We were brothers. Sisters. Best Friends.

We'd found a happy ending.

And we had peace.

Peace.

Peace.

The End

VVVVVVVV

Please review if you like it! Even though it is complete, I still LOVE hearing from my readers!


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